Is Assimilation Necessary?

(Imagine that the bear is an immigrant dressed as an American, and the word "bear" was substituted with the word "immigrant")

For an assignment I recently interviewed a friend who came to America as a refugee from Liberia. When I asked him about what the differences in America and Africa he told me that he loved his culture and tried to keep it as much as possible; he also told me that he had a hard time in his new school because people were not that friendly. Last year I interviewed another friend for another assignment, and she told me about what it was like moving to America from Slovakia. She said that her boyfriend (who emigrated from Poland) did not want to assimilate in and did not have the need to fit in as an “American”. This was hard for her because she wanted to fit in as an American and live the “American dream”. He eventually learned English and they have assimilated in to American culture, but while doing so they lost a lot of their own culture.

Comparing the two of them, I asked myself whether or not a person needs to assimilate to become an American. While my one friend has tried to hold on to his African culture, he has not completely assimilated into America. On the other hand, my other friend assimilated but lost a lot of her culture. It seems that to become American it needs to be all or nothing with assimilation. This is clearly not the case for all immigrants, but for many that I know it is. To be able to fit in with their new country, they need to sacrifice a lot. Becoming “American” comes at a cost.

The question now is whether or not it is worth it. Everything comes at a cost, but the trouble is deciding whether or not it is worth it. Is losing your culture, your old life, worth making a new one? Exactly how much of your culture must you lose before becoming an assimilated American? There are too many questions that can be asked, and the answers are never clear cut, but in the end it really comes down to how much a person if willing to give up to get their new life.

In many countries Americans are seen negatively because they expect everyone to speak English when they come to the States, but when we go somewhere else we still expect them to speak English. For the most part Americans don’t have to worry about losing their own culture, and that makes it difficult to see the impact it can have on a person. The price of being American is a high one to pay, and assimilation may be the price.

Waterboarding and Our Country

The soldiers in the picture have smirks, almost smiles, on their faces while toturing this man

In an episode of Law and Order SVU, ADA (Assistant District Attorney) Novak becomes upset when the FBI refuses to give details on a suspect’s alibi. She says the police questioning these “people of interest” to verify the alibi would jeopardize an ongoing investigation. Novak becomes upset by the FBI’s self-appointed superiority and questions the hierarchy of the parties involved: “So your work trumps putting murders and rapists behind bars because there is a terrorist around every corner?” The FBI representative later says to ADA Novak that “there is a terrorist around every corner… you just don’t know about it”.

When sending troops to Iraq, the public was told that it was because of weapons of mass destruction. This was never proven, and it is questioned as to if it was a fabricated statement giving the government an excuse to deploy troops. They went in without the public having real knowledge and tried to justify the government’s actions by saying that we needed to go there because of information relating to national safety. Recently information about water boarding has been shown publicly, and the Obama administration has described it as illegal torture. Obama ordered that memos on these actions should be released to the public, hopefully in an attempt to change Bush’s secrecy that has caused many Americans to lose trust in the government.

It can be nearly impossible to draw a line in war, but one must be drawn. The War on Terror is debatable as is, but with torturous methods being used, Americans can lose faith in the war and the government as a whole. Still, the question remains: do the ends justify the means? This question can be applied to numerous topics, but in war it can be even more debatable. If the public cannot be sure about the justifications of a war, how can we be able to agree with these techniques? It can neither be confirmed nor denied on if this has even helped, because the public doesn’t know everything about what’s going on overseas, but as a general statement, torture is many times not a good thing. Not only do we hold the risk of putting innocent people trough a terrible ordeal, but torturing people in countries we are at war with only gives them motivation to do the same to our soldiers. A line can be hard to draw in war, but if one is not drawn, who knows what the consequential actions, to our country and from our country, could be.

An article talks about some of the details on waterboarding.

Can Patriotism Go Too Far?

While watching the movie “Born on the Fourth of July” in class, Ron Kovic, while in high school, said that he was willing to die for his country in Vietnam. “That lack of comprehension for his own mortality is what makes him a great soldier,” (as Mrs. Logan said), that he is willing to do anything. It isn’t until after he returns home, paralyzed, that his views on the war change. He becomes an anti-war protestor, but is still just as patriotic as ever. It takes an incredibly strong person to fight in a war, risking their lives for their country, and they should be seen as just that; however, it takes an even stronger person to be able to speak out against war, to say that we can “fight communism” without guns. This should not take away from the bravery of soldiers; we should be supporting our soldiers in Iraq right now, by bringing them home. When he demands to his parents that he will die for his country if he needs to, it seems melodramatic and childish, but that may be necessary. If a soldier didn’t demand that they were willing to die for their country, for what they think is right, we would have no military. Kovic went to fight, while some were forced to fight. During the draft many young men were proud to fight, but there were many that tried to afford it by all costs. If people do not want to be in a war, it will be easy to see based on how they respond to it. People should not be forced into a war, and war should not be made with false pretenses.